A Tale Of Two Scandals

posted at 7:47 pm on April 28, 2007 by see-dubya

I don’t blame the Left for going ga-ga over this one at all. Especially since he was the “AIDS relief czar”; calling up escort services for “just massages” (didn’t we hear that from Ted Haggard?) doesn’t square too well with the AIDS prevention message. Randy Randy screwed up badly, and he needed to go. And he did.

When Wolfowitz was appointed to the World Bank, his girlfriend was already working there and the WB management said she’d have to go. The details of how and why this became a scandal are laid out here and here–the long and short of it being that a lot of countries (particularly China) don’t like him or his rigorous insistence on accountability and anti-corruption members in the countries that the world bank lends your tax dollars their money to.

The World Bank hates him like the UN hated Bolton. (And the nutroots hate him worse.) And they’ve dredged up this old non-scandal to bring him down.

The more telling story is the support for the bank president from reform-minded Africans. At a press conference during this month’s World Bank-IMF meetings in Washington, four of the more progressive African finance ministers were asked about the Wolfowitz flap.

You can read their assessments of Wolfowitz at that excellent Opinion Journal link. I know you’re like, “it’s the weekend, and that’s about the World Bank…” but dude, it’s good stuff.

In the meantime, let’s hope the Bush administration remembers its vaunted loyalty and goes to bat for Wolfie before China and the Euros shamefully run him out of office. Unlike Randy Randy, this one’s worth fighting for.

(Sorry for all the links to JYB; I just know this story is like eating your vegetables and there aren’t too many other bloggers following it. Oh, and the frontpage thumbnail is adapted from TSG.

Wolfowitz is a good man. As a deputy in Bush 41’s Defense Dept. he was one of the architects of the liberation of Kuwait. He is a great thinker and is like a pit bull when given a problem to “chew” on. If I were a betting man, I’d wager he’s staying.

This Wolfowitz “scandal” has gone further already than it should have. I hope he gets to stick around, but I’m not holding my breath that the Administration will do much in his defense given their record of…well, not defending people.

I’m sure there are plenty of Republicans AND Democrats in there. The question is whether the MSM will search as zealously for Dems as they will for Republicans. My guess is no, considering how little press coverage “cold Cash” Jefferson has gotten compared to the Mark Foley media orgasm.

We touched on this with the dancin’ malaria thread. Bush has done a lot for Africa, and what the WSJ is saying about Africans standing up for Wolfowitz reflects the reality that Africans are getting a fairer deal with Americans, and specifically Republicans. Africans were razzle-dazzled for years by the pro-Left Democrat spin, which reflects the Left-European politics, but they have been learning, the hard way that it’s nearly all talk. The action, whatever it is, always benefits the European Left over African needs and realities. The USA is constantly slandered with the accusation of neo-colonialism, but it’s been the Europeans who have been actively running a neo-colonialist relationship with their former African colonies, especially France. That’s why the Ivory Coast rioters were so angry at the sell out by France who was mediating the north-south split with its own vested interests at heart. They were tossing Molotov coctails at the French Embassy, while two blocks away, were dancing and waving at the American Embassy, with signs that read, “We love you America. Save us from the French.”
The Republicans have reached out to promote democracy in Africa, they are practical, no nonsense and deliver.

Here’s my take on this lady and her customers: Publish the list. Republican, Democrat, Independent, etc. doesn’t matter-if some idiot was paying for sex while one of our civil servants (remember, they serve US, we don’t work for them,)publish the list and let their names be dragged through the mud they were dirtying themselves in.
And if it turns out that there are more Republicans than Democrats on the list, so be it.